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Members of the Board of Regents approved hunger-free campus designations for 31 public and 4 private Louisiana higher education institutions across the state.
Act 719 established criteria for Louisiana higher education institutions to earn a hunger-free campus designation and authorized the Hunger-Free Campus competitive grant program to support the institutions in their efforts.
A 2020 national study indicated that approximately 29% of students at four-year colleges and 38% at two-year institutions experience food insecurity. The numbers for students of color are even higher. These data are not surprising given Louisiana’s high rate of students living in poverty.
Act 719 established very specific criteria for campuses to receive the Hunger-Free Campus designation, requiring them to do all of the following:
- Establish a Hunger-Free Task Force;
- Inform students who receive need-based financial aid of their potential eligibility to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits;
- Provide a summary of campus efforts in the following areas:
- Hunger-Free Campus Task Force,
- SNAP benefits communication informing students of potential eligibility,
- Anti-Hunger campus event (date, time, location, participating schools), and
- Access to charitable food distribution on your campus(es) or local community food pantry.
To carry out this legislative mandate, the Board of Regents launched several strategies and outreach efforts, including:
- Surveyed public and private institutions to create a landscape analysis of hunger-free activities at Louisiana institutions;
- Determined exemplary institutions leading this work in Louisiana and met with staff;
- Created the Hunger-Free Campus designation application and distributed it to institutional student affairs teams;
- Worked with Feeding Louisiana, the Louisiana Charitable Food Summit, and the Louisiana Anti-Hunger Coalition to help support on-campus food pantries; and
- Facilitated two rounds of application submission and review.
Every institution across the four public higher education systems (LCTCS, LSU, Southern, and UL) and four of the state’s private institutions applied for and received the HFC designation.
Institutions receiving the Hunger-Free Designation:
LOUISIANA ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (LAICU)
Centenary College of Louisiana
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University
Loyola University New Orleans
Tulane University
LOUISIANA COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM (LCTCS)
Baton Rouge Community College
Bossier Parish Community College
Central Louisiana Technical Community College
Delgado Community College
Fletcher Technical Community College
Louisiana Delta Community College
Northshore Technical Community College
Northwest Technical Community College
Nunez Community College
River Parishes Community College
South Louisiana Community College
SOWELA Technical Community College
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
Louisiana State University and A&M College
Louisiana State University of Alexandria
Louisiana State University Eunice
Louisiana State University Shreveport
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
Southern University and A&M College
Southern University at New Orleans
Southern University Shreveport
Southern University Law Center
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA SYSTEM
Grambling State University
Louisiana Tech University
McNeese State University
Nicholls State University
Northwestern State University
Southeastern Louisiana University
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Louisiana at Monroe
University of New Orleans
Contact
Dr. Chris Yandle, Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs
chris.yandle@laregents.edu • 985-373-5845
